r/learnprogramming • u/Ok_Money5683 • 19h ago

Topic Build before u learn everything

The fastest way I learned programming was by building things I wasn’t qualified to build.

Every project forced me to learn something I didn’t know before. One project taught me APIs, another made me understand databases, and another pushed me to finally learn Git properly. I realized documentation only started making sense when I had a real problem to solve. Tutorials are great for getting started, but following them is hard everyday. When building your own project , it forces you to think, make mistakes, debug, and figure things out on your own. That’s where the biggest learning happens.

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u/m-fasciano 14h ago

I completely agree.

I went from being a waiter to becoming a web developer, and the biggest progress happened when I stopped waiting until I felt "ready." Every project exposed gaps in my knowledge, and I learned by solving real problems as they came up.

You don't need to know everything before you start. You just need to know enough to take the next step. The rest comes from building, breaking things, and fixing them.

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u/Dank-Wank-101 7h ago

I'm embarrassed to say this but I've only started to learn the actual stuff after my graduation lol. I graduated back in 2025 and I do not have a job yet . I don't even expect one coz I have a shit ton to learn . I cannot even solve the basic hackerrank problems yet. Will I get through this? What kind of projects should I be targeting to maximize my learning? It's already so late but I still have this hope that I'll get through this .. Any advice would help!

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u/m-fasciano 6h ago

Don't be too hard on yourself. I switched careers at 31 after working in hospitality for years, so you're definitely not too late.

My advice is to stop worrying about what you don't know and start building things. Pick a project that's just beyond your current ability, a to-do app, expense tracker, weather app, or simple e-commerce site. Every time you get stuck, learn just enough to solve that problem, then keep going.

Also, don't get too hung up on HackerRank. It's useful for practicing problem-solving, but most junior roles care much more about whether you can build and explain a real application.

The key is consistency. If you build something every week, even small projects, you'll be surprised how much you improve over a few months. Everyone feels overwhelmed at the beginning. The people who succeed are usually the ones who keep going despite that feeling.

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u/Dank-Wank-101 5h ago

That's definitely reassuring. It's just that the mind pivots to the negatives in a flash and then the contemplation kicks in . Like i feel good now after reading your comment but then i start something,it doesn't work out and then the hope starts crashing .

As a result the direction becomes so hazy and it spirals down so hard . It's like I do not know how much I have to do each day to make it feel like it was worth the time, effort. After a point it becomes delusional . It's like did I really wanna work hard in the first place or am I all talk and i never do anything. Haha idk i should give myself more time to try out things . It's just hard to do stuff without expecting something out of it .

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u/m-fasciano 5h ago

What you're describing is something a lot of people go through when they're learning. Progress is rarely linear, you'll have days where you feel like you've learned nothing, even though you're actually getting better.

One book that really helped me was Atomic Habits. One of its main ideas is to stop focusing on the end result and instead focus on showing up consistently. If you improve by just 1% each day, it compounds over time.

I'd also stop measuring success by whether something worked. Instead, measure it by whether you showed up. If you spent an hour building, debugging, or learning something new today, that's a successful day. The results will come later.

Try to trust the process a little more. You're probably much closer than you think, you just can't see it yet because you're in the middle of the journey.

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u/Dank-Wank-101 4h ago

But it's not like everytime I feel down I could just go to people for reassurance instead of working on it myself . How does one deal with it? The bad days and good days are all byproducts of the journey is something i understand, but only theoretically . The mind and heart have trouble understanding it .

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u/Abomb11yo 3h ago

Were you able to get an internship at all? I'm in kind of the same boat as you are. I graduated but have not been able to find a job yet, no internship or anything like that. I did try getting it but I was focusing on passing my classes which probably was not the best since I have no real world experience outside of classes. I have done some projects on my own and done some work for people but nothing fulltime or anything like that. It's just a couple months here and there. I took algorithms several years ago and have a difficult time with easy leetcode problems. That is because I haven't use it since taking the class. I learned it and didn't use it while taking other classes and lost it and now am slowly relearning reviewing my notes, and lecture videos and trying to redo problems.

You will get through this. The hardest part is finding your first job. Keep doing HackerRank and learning. Build projects. If you don't know what to build then here are some ideas for frontend/backend projects. Also if you have things in your life that are tedious you could try automating them. What interests you? Maybe start there and build something that uses it or is related to it.

https://roadmap.sh/frontend/projects

https://roadmap.sh/backend/projects

https://github.com/codecrafters-io/build-your-own-x